Louisa’s second helping of MasterChef
A LOCAL chef will be going into battle on MasterChef: The Professionals, A Festive Knockout.
It marks a return to the culinary kitchen for Louisa Ellis, who first appeared on TV’s toughest cooking competition in 2017, when she made it through to the final.
Four chefs, hailed “some of the most memorable”, have been invited to cook for the judges once again to show how their skills have progressed since they took part.
Louisa will be up against 2014 finalist Danny Parker, 2009 finalist Marianne Lumb and 2018 semi-finalist William Chilila.
The chef, who has launched her own home delivery service from Long Eaton during the pandemic, said it was no less daunting the second time around.
“If anything, I found the second experience of MasterChef more nerve-wracking as I had so much to lose this time round. It’s safe to say that when they invited me back into the kitchen I had to sleep on it first. I woke up the next day, wrote the text to answer ‘yes’ to the invitation, closed my eyes and pressed send... at that point there was no going back.
“It’s been three years since I competed and I feel like I have learnt so much during that time so I thought why not?”
Louisa had been working as a private chef and cooking at pop-up events before the pandemic. This year she launched her own home delivery service, working out of a kitchen in Long Eaton.
She said: “2020 has been a rollercoaster for me, although I lost all of my work to begin with, I had to think quickly to try and adapt to the unknown circumstances.
“I managed to set up a heat at home service which has worked well and it has meant I’ve been able to carry on working during these uncertain times.”
■MasterChef: The Professionals, A Festive Knockout, can been seen tomorrow on BBC1 at 8pm.